I’ve had an idea percolating around in my head for a bit, and with the All Things Open CFP deadline rapidly approaching, I’ve decided to get serious about it. I’m considering submitting a proposal for a “Contributing to Fedora for the first time” talk. The intention would be to target that initial challenge of figuring out how to get started. Of course, we already have many great web resources, such as How to be a successful contributor and https://whatcanidoforfedora.org/, not to mention the many posts on this forum and the mailing lists asking how to get started. Even given those, there is value in presenting the ideas in a different medium, and as a contributor, but not a core contributor, I can provide an approachable take on the topic.
I’ve been looking around for existing talks along these lines, and I haven’t seen much. This could be good news, as it won’t be rehashing the same topic repeatedly, or maybe it is bad news, because it isn’t actually that interesting.
I realize that I don’t need to ask permission, and that isn’t what this is. Instead, I’m curious what other people think about the idea, especially considering the Mindshare team is frequently involved in this topic.
Does it seem like people might be interested?
Has this already been tried and was a flop?
Any pointers or warnings when covering this topic?
Of course, all of this presupposes I can get such a talk accepted in the first place . Thanks for any perspectives you may have.
I think this is one the talks which may be interesting to a newcomer but are quite boring for a more experienced FOSS contributor.
The success is very dependent on the type of the audience you are addressing. For example it would be a good talk at university event like a release party, but it might be not the best for a more professional conferences like, probably, All Systems Go!
Try to figure out your main goal here:
If it is the topic itself which is interesting to you, do work on it, but then find the right audience for it. And it might be the right way would be to write a Fedora Magazine article, or make a YouTube video which we can feature on Fedora channels and in Fedora Docs. Or a presentation in a virtual release party.
If your primary goal is participating in the All Systems Go conference, then start from the conference and what typical visitors there look like. Will they come there with the goal of contributing to Fedora? Probably not. Then maybe we should address Why they need to contribute to Fedora, instead of How?
Hi Troy,
I’m Mat. I help out at the Fedora Join SIG. We provide some of the kind of information you are looking at doing a talk on.
What I find it that many people coming to us are swamped by the amount of areas we have at Fedora. Perhaps a talk on what areas there are to contribute to would be informative to the conference crowd.
You would be welcome to help us out at Join, drop by Matrix sometime.
Thank you both for your thoughtful responses, I knew I could get some good perspectives from the people here!
The suggestion to really consider the audience seems particularly relevant. Not only does it seem like a good idea when considering the conference, but it is also something I should think carefully about when picking my title, description, and the content. An unfocused talk likely won’t be useful for any audience. The idea of addressing the why instead of the how is definitely something I’ll have to ponder, it seems like an interesting idea.
I do think an introductory Fedora contribution talk would fit in well with All Things Open. While there have certainly been more advanced topics discussed, I know one of the things they really aim for is accessibility. Both in cost and in content. Also, contribution howtos for open source projects and 101 level topics are specifically mentioned as topics of interest.
@theprogram That is a great pointer that I should also think about helping out with Join since this is obviously a topic of interest for me. I was certainly reviewing a lot of the materials that the team has already put together.
. Thanks for any perspectives you may have.